Josh Lanyon - The Mermaid Murders

“If it was an accident, why didn’t you report it right away? Why did you try to cover it up?”

“It doesn’t matter what it was. It’s too late now.”

“It does matter. You kill a federal agent in cold blood, you’re done.”

“I’m done if I don’t kill you.”

“Kennedy knows. For Christ’s sake. Everybody in your station must have figured it out by now.”

“I know Kennedy knows. The bastard never stopped phoning me the whole way here.”

If that was true, Kennedy must have been desperate to stop Gervase. He’d deliberately abandoned any element of surprise.

“Then what the hell is the point of this? You’re not going to get the drop on him. It’s too late anyway. You have to know that. You’re making it worse for yourself.”

And me. You asshole .

Maybe he should swallow the charm. That was one way of preserving it, just in case Kennedy didn’t arrive in time. Or didn’t survive. Chances were good it would be found in the autopsy. It would certainly trigger a few questions. A lot of questions.

A grisly thought, but…kind of hard not to consider it when someone was firing round after round at you. Except Gervase hadn’t fired for a few seconds.

Motion on the right. Jason brought his weapon up.

“I’ll deal with Kennedy.” Gervase stepped into the empty window frame. His weapon was leveled at Jason. He could hardly fail to notice Jason’s weapon was also trained on him.

Great. Straight out of Hong Kong Cinema.

Gervase stared coldly down at Jason. Jason stared back.

Were they really going to shoot each other?

There did not appear to be another option. If Jason was going down, he was taking Gervase with him. He was not leaving Gervase to deal with Kennedy. That much he knew for sure.

Three .

This was so stupid. So pointless. So unbelievably…

Two .

Don’t think. Don’t talk. Squeeze the trigger .

“You’ve never shot anyone before, have you?” Gervase sounded suddenly weary.

“I have,” Kennedy’s voice said clearly from behind Gervase.

Kennedy fired.

Chapter Twenty-Two

“You could have told me to drop it,” Gervase muttered as he was lifted onto the stretcher that would carry him to the waiting helicopter.

“I could have blown your head off too,” Kennedy said. “I didn’t.”

“You should have.”

“I probably should have,” Kennedy agreed. Always there with the warm and fuzzy.

Or maybe he was doing Gervase the courtesy of being honest with him. Since he had not obliged him by helping him commit suicide.

While they had waited for the state trooper and the med chopper, Gervase had talked. He said it was to keep his mind off the pain of his gunshot wound. Jason believed he had been longing to get the story off his chest since the homicide had happened.

Except it wasn’t homicide. Manslaughter at most. And if Gervase had just owned up to it at the start—

“I should have taken early retirement,” Gervase said as Kennedy shoved his own jacket against the wound in Gervase’s shoulder.

“You should have taken something,” Kennedy said.

Gervase winced as Kennedy applied pressure to the wound. “I didn’t have the patience to deal with the bullshit anymore.”

“What happened that night?” Jason asked.

“It was an accident. I went out there to tell the Madigan kid to turn the goddamned music down or else. She told me to fuck off. Right to my face. Like I was her peer, like I was her servant . She told me her parents paid my salary. Paid the salary of all my officers. Spoiled, mouthy little bitch. I slapped her. Which I shouldn’t have. I know that. I knew it as it was happening. Big mistake. And then it got worse. She fell and hit her head on a rock.”

Gervase stared at them in disbelief. “Just like that. Boom. Lights out. I couldn’t believe it. She was dead .”

“Why the hell did you try to conceal it?” Kennedy asked.

Gervase’s eyes were still dark with horror. “My God. What was I supposed to do? You’ve seen her parents in action. I wouldn’t just have lost my job. They’d have taken me for everything I own. And I don’t own that much, not after a lifetime of public service. They would have destroyed my family. And it wouldn’t have stopped there. I’d have gone to jail. They’d have seen to that. A cop in jail. You know what happens to cops in jail? But they wouldn’t have cared. They could afford the best lawyers. I’d have lost everything because of a mouthy little brat.”

“Because you struck and killed her,” Kennedy said.

Awareness seemed to come back to Gervase’s face. He looked away. “Yeah,” he said thickly.

Jason said, “Why the hell did you drag Kennedy into this? Why involve the Bureau? You’d probably have got away with making it look like a sex crime or something if you hadn’t tried to make it look like the Huntsman was back.”

Gervase gave a strange laugh. “I know! I think I lost my mind there for a while. I’d seen you on the news the night before.” He was staring at Kennedy. “And I thought what a lucky sonofabitch you were. Everybody else does your grunt work, and you get to be the big hero who saves the day.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kennedy said.

“A governor called you out right there on TV, and you still walked away with your job. Anybody else would have been fired. Hell, you were getting credit for solving that case too!”

Jason repeated, “Why did you bring him in?”

“Because I couldn’t see how not to. I knew how to stage Rebecca’s body, make it look like maybe the Huntsman had a copycat, but then if we really did have a copycat, we’d bring in Kennedy. So how could I not bring him in? What would be my excuse?”

Maybe it was true. Jason thought there was more to the story. Resentment? Jealousy? Hatred? On the surface Gervase seemed like a decent, well-balanced guy. As sane as they came. But to harbor such bitter feelings for so many years? Was this because of how good Kennedy was at his job? Or because he didn’t bother to pretend he wasn’t that good?

Maybe Kennedy felt the same thing, because he rose and walked away from the little ring of light created by their flashlights.

“How did it happen that nobody saw you with Rebecca?” Jason asked, watching Kennedy’s straight, motionless silhouette.

“She was on her way into the house when I pulled up. She walked out to meet me. It took…no more than a couple of minutes.”

“You goddamned fool.” Kennedy’s voice was a growl from the darkness. “You should have reported it immediately.”

“That’s easy to say. You weren’t there. You’ll never be there because you don’t have anything to lose. This is your life.”

Kennedy didn’t answer.

Jason said, “What about the mermaid charm found with Rebecca? Where did that one come from?”

Gervase groaned. “I found it years ago where Ginny’s body was discovered. I go out there sometimes, into the woods where we found each of the girls. And one day I spotted it lying there in the grass. Right where we’d searched a dozen times. I carried it on my own keychain ever since because I never wanted to forget.”

The low and distant thwack-thwack-thwack of an approaching helicopter reached their ears then. Jason had spotted lights skimming the black tree tops, heading their way.

Chief Gervase’s light, pain-filled eyes followed Kennedy. “You don’t know what those murders did to us. We’re haunted to this day. Those ghosts will follow us until Kingsfield crumbles away like this town. It was just another case for you. Another big career triumph. Not for me. I knew those girls. Every one of them. I had to face their parents. I don’t ever get to forget. To walk away.”